What Is The Job Of The Game Tester?

Being a game tester looks like a dream job for absolutely any gamer out there. It is something that seems perfect. After all, you are playing games and are reporting bugs, right? Wrong! The responsibilities of the game tester are numerous. If you are just a gamer that loves playing games, there is a pretty good possibility that you would not do a really good job as a game tester. Game developers that hire gamers without testing experience are actually going to lose a lot of money and their games will most likely be filled with bugs.

The Myth
We see a lot of people that think a game tester will make hundreds per hour while simply testing games. This is definitely not the case. Such a position will be vital and will require education. In many cases the professional game testers go through a long schedule.

What Does The Game Tester Do The Entire Day?
It does seem that the game tester just plays game for the entire day but there is so much more than that. The reason why professional testing services like Bugfinders go through a really long education phase for all the employed testers is that the responsibility of the game tester is huge. Every single game aspect has to be checked, every character, scenario or weapon.

As soon as a bug is identified, the game tester will have to write an official report about it. This report is a vital part of the process so it has to be coherent and clear. Developers will depend on the need to be able to understand exactly what testers found. That anomaly that was identified has to be developed in a way that the developer can see what happened and what led to the error. To put it as simple as possible, the game developers and the testers have to work together so communication is key.

The game testing profession is not one that is consistent. As soon as the game goes into production, testing staffs are cut. The only situation in which this does not happen is when the game tester is employed by a professional company that has many projects at hand. Larger groups of testers are sometimes required and extra professional game testers may be hired.

Really good testers will usually apply for different positions constantly as it is problematic to have a constant work position available.

Conclusions
A game tester’s job may seem like a really great job and that all you need to do is play. It is really important that you take into account the fact that a lot of training is necessary. Have patience and choose this career only when you are 100% sure it is for you. Learn all that you can about the process and what you would need to do. Consider enrolling in a training program so that you can actually be taken through the game testing process. That will highlight whether or not it is a career path you should consider. Most people do not actually do this.